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Monday, December 26, 2011

Is the CIA Involved in the Crack Down of the Occupy Movement?

According to the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (from their website), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) may be refusing to process a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that would reveal what role, if any, the agency has played in law enforcement’s coordinated, nationwide campaign to shut down and evict Occupy movement encampments in cities throughout the country.

The language used by the agency to announce its refusal to process the FOIA request concerning its role in the crackdown on the Occupy movement is “a classic case of CIA-double speak,” according to the attorneys at the PCJF. Read the CIA's response (PDF)

The CIA is not specifically denying that it has records and documents that would reveal its role in the coordinated crackdown that evicted the encampments in major cities within a short period of time. Rather, the agency asserts that it won’t look for such records and documents.

"The CIA is apparently asserting that because its involvement in law enforcement's crackdown of the Occupy movement would be barred by law, it is not possible for the CIA to conduct an effective search for information responsive to our inquiry into its role in the operation," stated Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Executive Director of the PCJF. “In other words,” she continued, “because the actions would be illegal, they would also be off the books.”

Far from claiming it does not possess responsive records, the CIA stated in its letter to Ms. Verheyden-Hilliard that because such activities would be barred by law, "our records systems are not configured in a way that would allow us to perform a search reasonably calculated to lead to responsive records. Therefore, we must decline to process your request."

The following link (http://tinyurl.com/76hu543) is for an RT television with Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Executive Director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, concerning the CIA's refusal to process a Freedom of Information Request about the agency's role in the coordinated crackdown against Occupy encampments. The Partnership made the request because of the quick series of seemingly coordinated crack-downs around the country and the involvement of the Department of Homeland Security in planning these actions. They asked a variety of federal agencies for any documents relating to their involvement. The CIA does have a history of being involved in spying on civil rights and anti-war leaders in the 1960s. The CIA refused to conduct a search of their records in response to the FOIA request. They plan to take further legal action against the CIA and any other agency that refuses to respond to their request.